Sergeant Who Posed For Pictures With Ben Roethlisberger Resigns From Job

↵↵Remember this guy on the left in this photo? Milledgeville sergeant Jerry Blash. He made a brief appearance in the headlines for posing for pictures with Ben Roethlisberger on the night the Steelers QB allegedly sexually assaulted a woman in a bathroom at the Capital City bar. At the time, police chief Woodrow had the following to say: “The photographs did not and have not affected the investigation at all.” He’s selling that same line after this latest bit of information.↵

↵↵Blash, it seems, was outspoken in his skepticism of the accuser’s claims when he spoke with off-duty officer Anthony J. Barravecchio, who was with Roethlisberger on the night in question. Details via the Post-Gazette:↵

↵↵⇥“Hey, I need to talk to you guys,” Sgt. Blash reportedly told Officer Barravecchio, the off-duty Coraopolis officer.↵⇥↵⇥“We have a problem. This drunken b----, drunk off her a--, is accusing Ben of rape,” Officer Barravecchio said Sgt. Blash told him. “This pisses me off. Women can do this. It’s[bull] but we’ve got to do this, we’ve got to do a report. This is BS. She’s making [stuff] up.”↵⇥

↵↵And now the familiar deflection from the police chief:↵↵⇥Milledgeville police Chief Woodrow W. Blue Jr. said Sgt. Blash’s alleged comments did not influence the investigation and had no bearing on its outcome. He said that the sergeant’s conduct is under investigation. Sgt. Blash resigned Wednesday.↵↵↵To this point, Roethlisberger has had no real incentive to speak his side of the story. Right now all we’ve got are statements from the accuser and her friends paired with the suspect behavior of law enforcement and a bar owner. If the negative perception continues to build against Roethlisberger, will there come a point where he feels the need to tell his side of the story, even if it’s ugly, just to put the imaginations of the public to rest?↵

↵